Typhoon Yolanda death toll jumps to 5,209 - NDRRMC

By: Jaime Sinapit, InterAksyon.com
November 22, 2013 7:42 PM

Bodies lie side by side on the edge of a pit before a mass burial last Saturday in Tacloban City. The NDRRMC said Friday night the death toll from typhoon Yolanda had breached 5,000, a total still seen to rise. BERNARD TESTA, INTERAKSYON.COM

MANILA, Philippines - The death toll from âYolandaâ jumped to 5,209 as of Friday evening, the chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said, as more bodies were accounted for two weeks since the super typhoon struck, hitting five regions.

For the hardest-hit Region 8 or Eastern Visayas alone, the number of fatalities now stands at 4,919, said Executive Director Eduardo del Rosario.Â He said the number of those injured swelled to 23,404 while the number of missing is 1,611. Del Rosario said the numbers could still increase.

The total fatality count is now twice the maximum estimate of 2,500 earlier announced by President Benigno Aquino III.

According to Del Rosario, the bodies recovered in the latest retrievals were more than 1,700.

He walked reporters through the central disaster agencyâs validation process, by way of explaining the jump in the fatality count: âThese bodies were the ones recovered the last few days, which needed to be validated before being consolidated with the first batches."

"Thatâs why I explained yesterday that the numbers for each town or city should come from the mayorâs office and signed by their respective health officers," said Del Rosario.

"So, now weâve validated these, and thatâs why I promised you this morning that definitely we will be seeing changes today in the casualty count, since slowly we are getting official validation and confirmation from the municipal mayor and the municipal health officer," he added.Â